These days I don’t hear the Greek Definition of an Idiot as someone who did not Vote ! …I suppose this has everything to do with an other stronger Greek Definition emerging that defines an Idiot as a Greek who let his Country go bankrupt !

Have you Got any Civic Sense !?…then go Vote in the Civic Elections in Mumbai today !…I did

….Voting began early at 7.30 am…What is this Love Affair between Senior Citizens and Voting !….my father In law called me precisely at 8 am this morning to inquire if I have voted !…he had just returned from being one of the early birds to vote !

….and by 11 am,when I did vote later in the morning, there was a short queue of a few definitely 75+ aged citizens….one was graciously allowed even though he did not carry any identification…he was recognised by another….and one elderly Parsi gentleman,who I recognised said “Sahibji….we must cast our vote hoping the successful candidate will do some good,otherwise a wrong candidate may get elected ….that is the only power we have as a citizen in a democracy ” ….I added ” we must vote regardless of whether the elected candidate actually goes on to do any good for the constituency,community and city !”

Till I had voted,Just 40 odd voters in the three and a half hours before me had cast their vote in Booth No 27 at Greenlawns School in South Mumbai…work out the hourly average….. turnout was sad really

…I read that in the past three civic elections the turnout has been below 50% and in fact candidates that had polled even below 10% of the votes had been declared elected !

….there were eleven candidates in my constituency of which nine were women…so who did I vote for…candidate or party ?…well,all these years my wife and I have voted for different parties and their candidates…I have a theory that this was one of many extremes that kept our marriage wondorously alive and lively !…… this time we voted for the same party !…now ! now ! don’t read too much into this !….as we moved in to vote,she asked me who the candidate for that party was !…I told her it was a woman named….and she has made a host of promises …”ya,right!” she mumbled and grumbled

…so would our vote count !?….think of the tied one day cricket international between India and Sri Lanka the other day in the tri series in Australia if you want the answer !…every ball and every run counts !…the Umpire called a five ball over when India was batting…the media is going over town to say we would have won if the umpire had a good memory and simple and basic mathematical skills to count upto six !read more